Abbas "briefed the king on his latest talks with (US Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice during which she promised to exert further efforts to push forward the negotiations" between the Palestinians and Israel, Jamal Shobaki told AFP.
Abbas, a frequent visitor to Saudi Arabia, met with Rice in Jordan on Sunday and Monday, after which he announced he would resume talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert suspended seven weeks ago in protest at a deadly Israeli blitz on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Shobaki said that during his meeting with Abdullah, Abbas "stressed the need for a more active US role in putting pressure on Israel, and said there would be important moves regarding the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in the coming stage."
The Palestinian envoy said the discussions also touched on a Yemeni plan aimed at reconciling Abbas’s Fatah party with its Islamist rival Hamas, but he did not give details.
Hamas and Fatah agreed in Sanaa on March 23 to open their first direct talks since the Islamists’ seizure of the Gaza Strip last June, but they have since been bickering about the meaning of the Yemeni-brokered blueprint.
Saudi Arabia had itself brokered a power-sharing deal between Hamas and Fatah in February 2007 which led to a short-lived unity government.
Shobaki said Abbas later for Cairo, where he is expected to hold three-way talks on Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah II of Jordan on the situation in the Palestinian territories.
